1. Field of Invention
The invention relates generally to communications systems and methods. More particularly, the invention relates to systems and methods for initiating calls in a communications network to available members of a prioritized list of contacts and for establishing call access control rules within the communications network.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventional communications systems include a variety of users having both wireless and landline communications devices which can communicate with each other across both wireless and landline communications networks. Users typically contact one another by dialing a telephone number assigned to each user. This process can be made simpler though a “speed dial” feature which allows users to program their respective user devices with a certain number of predetermined telephone numbers. Keys on the user device are then assigned a corresponding telephone number which can then be dialed by pressing that pre-assigned key. For example the “1” key can be programmed to automatically dial the user's home telephone number. Alternatively, the user device may provide an interface which displays the preprogrammed speed dial numbers which can be viewed and selected by the user.
The speed dial feature, while useful, still requires the user to remember which keys are assigned to certain telephone numbers. In addition, each user device may only be capable of holding a limited number of preprogrammed numbers. In addition, when a user initiates a call using the speed dial feature, there is no guarantee that the user will make contact with the intended recipient of the call. Instead, the user may reach a busy signal, voicemail or some other indication that the intended call recipient is unavailable. Thus, the speed dial feature is not conducive to those situations, such as emergency situations, when a user may not have time to remember how the speed dial keys are assigned or is not in a position to try to call several contacts until an available contact answers the telephone.
Conventional communications devices, in certain cases, also provide users with the ability to view the source of an incoming call. This “caller identification” function may be configured so that the user can view the telephone number of the incoming call or, in some cases, the incoming call may be matched against preprogrammed telephone numbers, so that the name of the incoming caller is displayed (e.g., “incoming call from Steve”). While the caller identification function allows users to know the source of incoming calls, it does not allow users to control how those incoming calls are handled. Further, the caller identification function does not operate for outbound calls.
In many cases, however, it would be useful to not only be able to view caller information, but to also establish access control rules for the handling of both incoming and outbound calls. For example, parents may want the ability to control the time of day when their child's telephone is able to make calls (e.g., only from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m). In addition, users may want to block incoming calls from certain telephone numbers/sources and/or may want to disallow outbound calls to certain telephone numbers/destinations. In addition, users may want the ability to set and then change these access control rules easily.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a system and methods which allow a user to connect to predetermined contacts by depressing a single key on a user device and be assured that the call recipient is available. It would also be desirable to provide a system and methods which allow users to create a prioritized list of contacts that can be called in the order of their level of priority. It would further be desirable to provide a system and methods which allows users to establish access control rules governing incoming and outbound calls.